My wife and I saw Pearl Jam years ago at Hershey, and Rearview Mirror might rank up their as one of their best live tunes. And despite my wife's insistence that he's singing actual lyrics, I remain convinced that Eddie is merely mumbling his way through Yellow Ledbetter. It's a damn good, soulful mumble though.

I'm starting to feel my age. I remember hearing "Alive" for the first time on, of all places, Headbangers Ball, sans Riki Rachtman. I ran out later that week and picked up my "10" cassette, yes cassette, at Play It Again Records on Bethlehem's South Side. Rock on, Eddie Vedder and your "Singles" cameo.

Thanks to plenty of late-night feedings last summer courtesy of our soon-to-be 1-year-old, I became pretty engrossed in the World Cup. I actually started recording what I thought would be good matches on the pitch. Yes, I think I've become a soccer fan.

The challenge now is to see if that interest translates into the MLS, which is a different animal compared to nation vs. nation. But what better place to start than the hometown Philadelphia Union?

While Easton Suburban Water Authority had streets open all over the city, UGI followed behind to upgrade its services.

Once service laterals are installed and UGI finishes its work on streets like Lincoln, Butler, Williams and Wilkes-Barre, another contractor will install about 190 sidewalk ramps. The water authority had previously said that work could begin sometime late this month.

Once the ADA-accessible ramps are in place, the streets will be paved curb-to-curb.

I'd have to concur with LehighValleyLives. How many have unsuccessfully recommended, lobbied and advocated to trim Pa's General Assembly. I believe the saying goes something like, "What's good for the goose ..."

It would seem that that the Justice Department should have something more important to worry about than college football playoffs. But it's certainly reasonable to ask why only certain teams in certain conferences have access to certain games.

And as for Bill Hancock, the NCAA I-A (yes I refuse to use the silly name they've come up with) football "playoff" system is a joke. A silly, silly joke that doesn't settle anything. Mysteriously, I-AA, II and III have all managed to come up with a legitimate football playoff system. In fact, every other college sport utilizes a playoff system, except for big-time, big money college football.

I'm feeling just a bit mushy inside. I took my son, glove in hand, last summer to his first baseball game, a significant moment in any father's life. He's excited to see the Pigs again this year, which hopefully will prove a little more interesting now that he's playing t-ball. Baseball, popcorn and hotdogs with your boy. A wonderful rite of summer.

Surcharges, noted. BrewDog indicates that it brewed the limited edition beer with "herbal viagra," a distinction I do not recall the brewery making before I published the column. A BrewDog spokesman was quoted as saying that the company brewed the initial batch with actual Viagra and planned on using the real thing, if possible.